Re: [EXTERNAL] Links and Buttons: Convention Or Violation

I'm open to correction but as I see it there are different schools of thought and I've seen all of them supported by different accessibility practitioners.


  1.
The role should reflect the behaviour but it's not critical that the appearance reflects the role. So something that behaves like a link must be exposed as a link but can be visually styled to look like a button if that's what the UX designer wants.
  2.
The role should reflect the visual appearance, even if the behavior doesn't match the semantics of the role. So if it looks like a button it should be exposed as a button, even if it actually behaves like a link.
  3.
The role and appearance should both reflect the behavior. So if it behaves like a link, it must be exposed as a link and also must look like a link and not like a button.

3 would be my preference and I would accept 1 but not 2. It sound like you would accept 2 but not 1.

Mark

________________________________
From: Jim Homme <jhomme@benderconsult.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2026 19:17
To: Wai Interest Group (w3c-wai-ig@w3.org) <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Links and Buttons: Convention Or Violation


Hi,

I usually think of hyperlinks as going to new pages and buttons as starting a process. For example, fill out a form and click a button, rather than a hyperlink.



On a page I’m looking at, the styling looks like a button, and the tag is an anchor with a button role. I know that’s symantically incorrect. If the anchor becomes a button tag, the style and tag will agree, but clicking it would go to a new page if the underlying code was changed. How should the anchor and the styling be handled if the developer wants this to look like a button and how should it be handled if they want it to look like a link. I’m assuming that if I were the developer, one choice is to let the browser do what it wants to the link.



Thanks.



Jim

Jim Homme, Senior Accessibility Consultant

Bender Consulting Services, Inc.

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